


Baby, It's Cold Outside

by VintageManniqueen



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Harley Quinn (Comics)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 09:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8744344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VintageManniqueen/pseuds/VintageManniqueen
Summary: Harley loves the first snow.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Second attempt at the Harley Quinn comics universe.
> 
> Happy Yule, kids.

"Aw, would you look at that," Harley muttered against the icy chill of the window. "The first snow of the season. I wish Red was here to see it." She carefully released a long puff of air against the glass and drew her finger through the fog to leave a lopsided heart. "I don't know why she doesn't like the snow, Bernie. It's almost as beautiful as she is."

" _I don't know why you like the snow. I'm freezin' my tail off over here, Toots. You ever think about turning up the heat in this joint?"_

Harley moped away from the window and pulled her robe tighter around herself. "Put a cork in it, Beaver Boy. You got fur." She plopped gracelessly onto the bed and stared wistfully at the door, willing it to open and reveal a mane of red hair and a grumping Pamela Isley, shivering in one of Harley's own robes and bemoaning the biting chill of Harley's apartment.

"She didn't even tell me where she was going this time, Bernie. She just said she had a plane to catch and hung up. Said she'd call me when she got there." She fished her phone out of the tangle of blankets and sleeping puppies and hunched over it, swiping the screen in hopes that she would find a missed text or picture of some far away, steamy jungle bungalow. But as her heart had feared, she saw nothing but the seven missed calls from tenants about the heat and twenty two requests from Eggy to play Facenook games about candy.

She glanced away from the screen to catch the flakes drifting past the window, now fatter and falling faster. "The snow makes my heart hurt sometimes, Bernie. It's so pretty and pure and reminds me of being a kid, before the world got crazy and ugly and complicated. Wakin' up to the whole world being bright and still and hoping to Santa Claus I'd get an early Christmas break from school." She drew the sleeve of her robe across her eyes and sniffled.

" _Snow makes me hurt, too, Kid. My delicate toes, specifically. I'm-"_

Harley tossed the stuffed beaver to the floor and sniffled louder. "I never know what to do anymore when it snows. I don't know how to capture it and keep it forever. I tried puttin' it in a jar once in the freezer, you know? But it just turned into a big hunk of ice."

" _Have you ever tried living for the moment? Things that come-"_

"Bernie! That's it!" Harley jumped to her feet and sent her phone clattering to the floor. "We're gonna go take a picture of it for Ivy so when she lands and she's all cuddled up in her little island hut somewhere she can enjoy the snow from the warmth of Honolopolagos or wherever she is this time and not even have to be cold in her little planty bones!"

" _You got a mouse in your pocket, you crazy bucket of nuts? This thin coat ain't building a snowman at two o'clock in the morning."_

"Come on! We're gonna play in the snow!" Harley shoved her hands haphazardly into her mittens and struggled to scoop her phone from the floor, missing it once and dropping it twice from the slick wool. Frustrated, she bent at the waist and grabbed at it. "You piece of sh-"

" _I guess the cold doesn't make its way through that caboose insulation."_

Harley stashed her phone in her coat pocket and hastily wound her scarf around the beaver, stuffing the end in his mouth. "That oughta shut you up," she murmured, tucking him under her arm and dashing out the door to bound down the stairs and out into the winter wonderland.

When she reached the sidewalk in front of the building, she gingerly planted her boots into the fresh snow, the soft crunch the only sound besides the soft puffs of her breath on the normally busy city street. The snow had blanketed Brooklyn in less than an hour, and Harley tilted her head back to stare in wonderment at the flakes that continued to fall into her eyelashes and the brilliant down on the street around her. She became still for a long moment, the rush of falling flakes both dizzying and dazzling. A single street light ahead illuminated the scene before her and despite the chill, warmed her heart and made her briefly forget the ache left behind by Ivy.

"Oh, Bernie, it's so beautiful I don't wanna stomp around and mess it up."

" _I've never known you to keep things in order before, Fruitcake."_

So caught up in the moment was she that her phone rang in her pocket for a long moment before she noticed.

" **I really can't stay. Baby, it's cold outside! I've got to go away! Baby, it's cold outisde-"**

"Aw, shit." She fumbled numbly at the buzzing in her coat, but then her heart thrilled at the picture of her Pammy lighting up the screen. "She must have made it in," She mumbled through her mitten as she yanked it off with her teeth desperately.

"Hello, Ivy? Baby? Pammy? Can you hear me?"

A low chuckle greeted her. "Have you been talking to your beaver again, Harls?"

Harley released all the air she hadn't realized she'd been holding in her lungs. "I- huh? Yeah? I mean, don't I always? Anyway, baby, did you get to Galoduras safely?" She scuffed the toe of her boot against the snow and watched it spray a fine tuft into the air. "Is it the warm islandy heaven you hoped it would be?" She prayed for the waver in her voice to get lost in the static of the phone connection, for the sniffle to get stuck in her throat and not make its way to Ivy's ear.

"Oh, I'm in heaven alright, Baby."

A poorly choked sob. "Oh, yeah? I hope so, Pam-A-Lamb. You deserve a break. Always slavin' away in that lab. Didja know it's snowin' here? Like buckets of it. Too cold here for your delicativityness." She laughed weakly. "I'm uh, not gonna lie, Pammy, that I don't miss you like crazy because I sure as hell do, but-"

"Harls, look up."

"Huh? I-" Harley turned in a circle and looked up into the falling snow.

"Harley."

She could have sworn she heard that voice right next to her instead of through the phone. She turned back again, holding her phone in front of her face to see the screen flashing that the call had ended. "Goddamnit! The call dropped!" She moaned, frustrated tears threatening to freeze at the corners of her eyes.

" _Harley_."

Harley froze and almost like she couldn't tear her eyes away from the fat flake drifting in slow motion in front of her nose, her eyes rose slowly back to the street lamp, under which stood a bundled Ivy in the green wool coat Harley had stolen for her nearly a decade prior from Saks Fifth Avenue, years before their first kiss, before Harley's heart could understand the skip in its beat or the rush of her pulse every time the redheaded goddess crossed her mind, let alone her line of sight.

She rushed forward like a thing crazed, slipping and sliding along the road, her arms thrown out in front of her to catch herself should she fall, or to simply catch Ivy should she make it across without incident. She collided with her love in a flurry of tearful, hungry kisses, and they tumbled together nearly to the ground, Ivy catching their fall with an arm flung artfully to brace them against the light pole.

"Baby, baby, baby," Harley murmured, her kisses having moved from Ivy's lips to her cheeks, "What are you doing here?" Her hands roamed from Ivy's waist to her neck, then to her face and hair, and back to her hips in a wild rush. "It's much too cold for you, baby-"

Ivy drew away and studied Harley's face in the glow. "Shh. I've got my love to keep me warm." Her face gave way to a heavy-lidded grin.

"Christ, Red, are you trying to melt me all the way through?" Harley whimpered against her lips, pulling her back into a smoldering kiss.

"Mmmm," Ivy moaned softly. "I can't keep away from you for that long, Harls." She didn't step back, but withdrew her lips to raise her hand to Harley's rosy cheek. "I knew it was going to snow this week, and I know how much you love the first snow. I wouldn't have missed it for all the forests in South America, Sweetpea."

Harley grinned at her stupidly, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. It was an odd habit of theirs, to simply study the other's face for long moments. One Harley wouldn't ever break, wouldn't ever want to break. "You're the best in the world, my little snowflake."

Ivy kissed the tip of Harley's nose. "Come on, let's go inside and get you warmed up before you turn into a Quinnsicle."

Harley gave her one last dopey grin before pulling her into one last languid kiss. "I love you," She whispered as their lips met.

"And I you, Peanut." Ivy's hand slid from Harley's cheek along her arm to catch her hand in hers. "And don't forget to get your silly stuffed animal," She chided gently.

"Oh, shit, yeah," Harley mumbled, scooping Bernie from the snow at their feet.

" _Geez Louise, Nut Buckets. I see how it is, leaving your old pal to freeze in the snow. I'm calling the ASPCA on you. I'm calling the ACLU. I'm callin-"_

Harley stuffed the scarf back under his teeth and skipped through the snow gleefully, Ivy's hand in one hand and the dangling beaver in the other.

"Hey, Red?" She asked, swinging their joined hands between them.

"Hm?"

"Hey, hey, Red?"

Ivy sighed with the lilt of a laugh. "What is it, Love?"

The skip in her step gave way to a little jump. "Do ya wanna build a snoooowman?" She sang offkey.

Ivy laughed deep in her throat and pulled Harley tightly against her side. "Maybe in the morning." She leaned over to kiss Harley's forehead once as they came to a stop in front of the door. "Let's warm up first."

Harley wiggled her eyebrows and grinned at Ivy as she turned the doorknob. "I got some ideas about how we can do that."

"I'm sure we can work on those tonight."


End file.
